World Music CD Reviews World Fusion

If one were to only hear “The Sikhman And The Rasta” from London-based Transglobal Underground, they would guess Impossible Broadcasting to carry this eclectic collective to further heights. Recalling the days when Natacha Atlas yallah chanted all over their globetrotting dancefloor mixes, TGU continues an auspicious trend that seems trademarked: killer singles in the midst of absolute fluff. The aforementioned track, featuring Tuup ripping unitary patois philosophies of Hindu/Rastafarian mystics, is by far the single-to-have-it. He returns for the roving “Yellow And Black Taxi Cab,” with like-minded flourishes of Groove Corporation’s remix of Dillinger’s “Cocaine In My Brain.” The “fairy tale” Trio Bulgaria offers solid, high-pitched shrills on their two cuts, most interestingly with “Stoyane/Male-Le”—Eastern European folk harmonies in ProTooled cool. When TGU plays storyteller, as on the tongue-in-cheek “Drinking in Gomorrah,” their penchant for experimentation runs dry. The second Trio cut, “Isis K,” features progressive walls of drum ’n’ bass white noise swirling in cluttered catastrophe. For TGU to accomplish their futuristic vision, a little more timely tweaking is necessary, or else this broadcast really remains impossible (to handle).